36
by ForeverYoung7
Summary: "That's when it hit me. I would not make it out of these games alive, even if I were crowned victor. My soul would forever be dead." Check it out, i'm actually pretty proud of this!
1. Reaping

**Hello. I've decided to write an original Hunger Games story. All the characters are OC, and of my own creation, however, the concept of the Hunger Games was completely Suzanne Collin's idea, and i cannot take credit. **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, and please leave a review and let me know if I should continue or not! Thanks! :D**

"Aradina Acklers."

My heart stops beating. My body goes numb. My face falls.

I have just been selected to be a tribute in the 36th Annual Hunger Games. An escort from The Capitol grabs my upper arm with unnecessary force and drags me to the stage where the prissy looking women who called my name stands with a smug smile.

She knows. She knows that I'm going to die. Everybody knows.

"Right, now onto the boys!" she says with enthusiasm. "Kingston Harley!" She loves this. She loves seeing the shock on our faces and the fear in out eyes.

I didn't know Kingston too well. He's only thirteen. He's too young to die.

I have only just now noticed that my face is wet, and tears were steadily streaming from my eyes.

"Congratulations to our newest tributes from District Seven! May the odds be ever in your favor!" The cold hearted women steps down from the stage, and the escorts grabs Kingston and me and drag up into the City Hall, where we will await our visitors.

I am Aradina Acklers, as you already know. I am sixteen years old, my hair is black and falls to my waist, I have icy blue eyes, and pale skin. I have three younger sisters named Gretta, Vanessa, and Hallie. They are all 12 years old, triplets. My parents work very hard for little pay, so we are quite poor. I do all the extra work around the house while my parents are working their lives away to try and pay for a better life for us.

None of this will matter in a few days, seeing as I'll be dead.

I hear the door burst open, and I am greeted by the sobs of three little girls.

"Ara, I don't want you to go!" pleads Hallie. "You should run away now, so you don't have to die!"

"Please, don't die!" Gretta sobs, "You can't die!"

"When you leave, who will make us dinner when mommy and daddy are working?" Vanessa bawls.

I see my parents' faces have tears streaming down them as well.

"I'll come back alive," I lied, "I promise, I'll live for you." My little sisters' faces look comforted, however my parents knew better. I hated to lie to my sisters, but all they needed now was comfort. I can't tell them the truth.

My sisters all pulled me into a bear hug, and my parents joined in soon after.

"I love you, Dina," I heard my dad whisper into my ear.

"You'll always be my baby," My mom whispered into my other ear.

They know I won't make it. They know I don't stand a chance.

"Aradina?" A tall, muscular blonde girl entered my compartment on the lavish tribute train. I nodded my head, to show her I was listening. I already knew who she was.

"My name is Caridee Washbourne, I'll be your mentor for the games this year," She extended her hand, and I shook it. Caridee was one of the three remaining District Seven winners. The other two were Walter Harris, a man who was about 80 years old, and Francis Gerber, a man who was 35. Caridee had won the Hunger Games just three years ago, when she was 17. The memories of watching her stab and kill people were still fresh in my mind.

"I know you don't want to be here," she said, kindly, "Heck, nobody wants to be here, but I'm going to train you, and you are going to be victor." I snorted. Yeah right, princess.

"Aradina, you have to believe in yourself," she said, looking me straight in the eyes. "Do you want to die? Because if you do, I'm not going to waste my time mentoring you."

"Of course I don't want to die." I snapped at her, "Who would want to die? I have just come to terms with the fact that I'm not strong or brave. I don't have what it takes to come out of this alive."

"You think I didn't feel the same way three years ago when my name was called?" Caridee asked, returning the same sass that I dished out. "I thought I was a goner, but I pulled through with hard work and determination. Now, Aradina, are you going to win the 36th Annual Hunger Games?"

"Sure," I said with sarcasm. Caridee just raised her eyebrows.

"We'll work on your attitude. Get some sleep, we'll be arriving at the Capitol at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." She turned around and sauntered out of the room.

It was three o'clock in the morning, and sleep had still not come for me. My thoughts would not settle. I realized that I would never see my family again. I would never see the few friends that I had back in District Seven again. Ever again.

When it dawned on me that I was not going to get any sleep, I decided to stroll about the halls of the train. I left my compartment and silently slipped out the door. I walked down the hall a ways, my mind wondering, until I suddenly heard whispers coming from the compartment I was passing on my right.

I cautiously slid open the door, worried that I'd see the career tributes making plans, but that's not what I saw. There were tributes sitting on the floor, but none of them were careers. I saw two girls, from districts 5 and 9, and two boys, from districts 3 and 8. They were sitting in a circle, just talking.

"Couldn't sleep?" The girl from nine asked, sliding over to make room for me in the circle. "Neither could we. I'm Legacy."

I sat in the space that she had cleared for me.

"Aradina," I said, smiling slightly at her.

"I'm Rachelle," says the other girl.

"Dennis," says the boy from three.

"I'm Clark," says the boy from eight. "And we were just discussing how we hope to die in the arena."

"I want mine to be quick and painless," I said, I had already thought about my preferred death. "No bloodshed, I don't want my little sisters to see me bleed out."

"I want to be one of the first to die, so I don't have to live through hell in the arena," Dennis proclaimed. "You see what they've done when it gets down to ten people. I don't want to be burned alive." He was talking about last year's Hunger Games, where the Gamemakers killed off three people in a wildfire.

"I don't want to die at all," Rachelle said wistfully, "But I'm definitely not strong enough to be victor. Have you seen the careers this year? They look tough."

"I actually haven't seen them," I said. I could only imagine how terrifying they looked. Careers were often muscular, tall, and had a thirst for blood.

"The boy from Two is about 6'4"," Dennis said, shuddering. "He looks like he could rip a kid like me in half."

"We should form an alliance," Clark said, looking serious. "I know it's probably not the smartest thing to do, but if we want to outlive the careers, we have to have some sort of team."

"I agree," I said at once. Clark looked over at me and gave me a smile.

"Okay, I'm in," Legacy agreed a second after I did.

"Me too," Rachelle added, smiling. "It feels nice to have friends, even though after this, we'll probably all be dead."

"I'll team up with you guys if I make it past the blood bath," Dennis said. He was referring to the first hour or so of the Games, when everybody was in the same place, fighting for weapons, supplies, and food.

"I want Zharra to be with us, too," Clark said, everyone around the circle nodded, but I was confused. Clark noticed. "Zharra is the little girl who was reaped with me. Her family lives right next door to mine. I have to keep her safe." I nodded.

"I think I'm going to try and get some sleep," Legacy said, standing up and pushing her dirty blond hair out of her eyes. "God knows I'll need it." Rachelle and Dennis followed soon after her, leaving just Clark and me.

"So, you said you had little sisters," Clark said after Dennis left, "How old are they?"

"They're all twelve, triplets," I said, becoming sad thinking about them. "They were so nervous about possibly getting reaped. They didn't even expect it to happen to me." Clark nodded sadly. "What about you, do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah," Clark said, looking at the floor. "Three little brothers and two little sisters between the ages of 14 and 6. I don't know what they and my parents will do without me."

"Yeah, I have the same worries," I said, "My mom and dad both work sixteen hour days, I was the one who always watched my sisters."

"Those Gamemakers really know how to turn people's worlds upside down," Clark, said, with a bitter grin on his face.

"That's for sure," I said, making a similar face.

"Maybe we should try and get some sleep," Clark said, looking at his wristwatch to see the time.

"You can go to bed, if you want," I said, "There's no way I'm going to fall asleep."

"We can both sleep here, if you want," Clark said. I could tell he wasn't trying to be romantic or anything, just a good guy.

"That might help," I said, laying down on the compartment floor, "Thanks. And good luck in the arena."

"You, too," Clark said, and soon, we were both asleep.

**I also thought I'd include a list of all the competitors in this Games and their ages... so, here you go! **

ONE

Starlight Summers - 18

Storm Reddit - 17

TWO

Paris Deer -17

Calor Mitt - 18

THREE

Justine Schmitt - 14

Dennis Vold - 15

FOUR

Cloud Freemont - 18

Bradford Dellers - 18

FIVE

Rachelle Tilbit - 17

Duke Bell - 15

SIX

Cassidy Dobbins - 13

Jackson Lee - 18

SEVEN

Aradina Acklers - 16

Kingston Harley - 13

EIGHT

Zharra Orr - 12

Clark Riddler - 17

NINE

Legacy Meyer - 16

Dean Welbert - 15

TEN

Allison Lures - 15

Kel Harrison - 14

ELEVEN

Stacey Michaels - 17

Gil Green - 17

TWELVE

Angelica Dee - 16

Xander Schultz - 12


	2. Opening Ceremonies

The next morning I woke up, and Clark was gone. I looked at the clock in the corner of the compartment, and it read 7:20. I stood up and slowly made my way back to my own lavish compartment of the train. I took a quick shower and just when I finished getting ready, I heard a knock at my door.

I let Caridee into my compartment. She look very awake and well rested, unlike me.

"Rough night?" She asked when entering my compartment. The bags under my eyes must be more noticeable than I thought.

"Yes," I answered half-heartedly. I was in no mood for her optimistic attitude.

"Well, hun, we got a long day," she said, starting to make her way out of the compartment. "Come, eat some breakfast with me."

I glumly followed her into a large compartment of the train, where half of the tributes were sitting with their mentors, eating. I spotted Legacy sitting with her middle-aged mentor, she waved when she saw me enter, I forced a smile and waved back.

"Whose that?" Caridee asked. "It's the girl from nine, isn't? You met her?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep last night, so I found a few other tributes, and we talked." I wasn't sure how Caridee would take this information.

"Well, that's nice," she said, but she wasn't smiling. "It's always nice to have allies, but don't get too attached to them, Aradina."

I sighed and we sat down to eat our breakfast. Caridee started talking strategy and how I should act in front of other people, but I didn't really listen.

It was about three o'clock now. After I ate breakfast, we arrived at the capitol and had a tour, and listened to the Gamemakers ramble about how thrilled they were to have us in this year's games, and blah blah, blah, blah blah.

Now, I was waiting for my stylists to come make me over for the Opening Ceremonies tonight. The Ceremonies didn't start until seven, but apparently the make overs took about four hours, according to Caridee.

A small group of mid-twenty year olds entered the big, salon room I was sitting in. These people had to be the strangest looking people I've ever seen. One had violet- tinted skin and jet-black hair that went to her butt. The next had pastel green colored skin and a large, vivid green Mohawk, I'm pretty sure he was a boy, but not 100 percent. The third was the most normal looking. She had regular, peach colored skin, but her hair was highlighter yellow.

"Hi, I'm Persephone!" The one with the purple skin said happily.

"I'm Jade!" said the highlighter head in the same light tone.

"I'm Kyle!" Said the mohawked one. Yep, he was a boy.

"Omigod, you are, like, so totally gorgeous!" Jade squealed, running her fingers through my hair. "You're hair is so thick!"

"Her nails suck, though," Kyle said, taking my hand and examining my nails. "No offense, of course. Do you bite them?"

"Yeah," I said sheepishly, these people were very touchy feely.

"Well, darling, that needs to stop!" Kyle said with a big, bright smile.

"Oooo! I've already have such good ideas for your makeup!" Persephone jumped up and down with excitement, literally.

"Well, lets start with a full body wax, shall we?" Jade said, taking out a big tub of wax. I shuddered. I've never even shaved before.

"Don't worry, hun," Persephone said, noticing my grim look. "Waxing only hurts for a few minutes!"

The three of them stripped me down (which made me highly uncomfortable) and poured the hot wax all over the most tender spots in my body, and ripped off the hair there.

"SON OF A B-" I found my self hollering at the top of my voice.

"Oh, so she speaks!" Kyle said, laughing.

"Not only speaks, swears!" Jade said, also laughing.

When the waxing was done (hallelujah!), they began the scrub down. I'm pretty sure they scrubbed of a few layers of skin. Once done with the scrubbing, they brought out the wax again, but this time used it on my eyebrows. Then, they washed and blow dried my hair, leaving it softer and silkier than it's ever been. They must have some special, expensive shampoo. This whole process took about an hour. When they were completed with my 'pre-stylist' routine (as they called it) they brought in my actual stylist.

"Hi there!" A women who was about thirty walked into the room. She actually looked, dare I say it, normal. She had beautiful, dark skin, and shoulder length black hair, and she was a little on the bigger side. She was wearing black pants and a black silk shirt.

"I'm Destiny!" She said, extending her arm, I shook it.

"Aradina," I introduced myself.

"My oh my, are you a pretty one!" She said, running her fingers through my hair, like Jade did. "Gorgeous hair!" I smiled in thanks. I've never gotten so many compliments (or insults) than I had in this past hour.

"Do you want to see your dress?" She asked, "I worked so hard on it, I really hope you like it!"

She walked over the large garment bag in the corner of the room and zipped it open. I gazed at the dress.

It was made almost entirely of leaves and flowers. The dress was long and tight fitting, and flared out a little bit at the bottom, where there were magenta roses sewn in with the green leaves. It was a breathtaking dress.

"This is beautiful, Destiny," I said honestly. "Thank you so much." Destiny smiled warmly.

"You're welcome, honey! I'm glad you like it so much."

Destiny, Jade, Persephone, and Kyle then proceeded to do my make up and hair, which took far longer than I expected it to. Destiny and Jade worked on curling every last strand of my hair, and Kyle and Persephone applied my make-up. When they were done, I looked in the mirror.

I could hardly recognize myself. My hair was so perfect, it almost looked like a wig. It feel to the middle of my ribcage. Seeing makeup on my face was strange, also. I had never worn makeup before. My eyes were had on a perfect mix of brown, grey, and forest green eyeshadow, and they put eyeliner and mascara on me. My cheeks were pink also, and my lips were bright red. I looked like a completely different girl. A pretty girl. I had never been pretty before.

"You look so fabulous," Kyle said, with his hand over his mouth. "And even your nails look great!" I looked down at my nails which he had given a "French Manicure" as he called it.

"Yean, you look, like, SO beautiful, doll!" Jade said, she looked like she was about to cry.

"You'll look even more stunning with Destiny's gown on!" Persephone squealed.

They carefully helped me into the dress, and once it was on, I looked at myself in the full body mirror. Yep, this girl was NOT me.

Caridee fetched me from my dressing room (she gushed about how wonderful I looked), and brought me to my chariot, which looked like it was made of wood. District Seven was known for its trees and lumber, which explains my dress and chariot. Kingston was already in the chariot. He looked like he was about to throw up. He was wearing a green suit the same color at the leaves on my dress.

"Hi," I said, as I entered the chariot. Kingston just looked at me, and tried to smile, but it didn't work very well. Poor kid.

After sitting in silence for about five minutes, Caridee hopped in the chariot, along with Kingston's mentor, Francis, Destiny and Kingston's stylist. He introduced himself as 'Philip'. I gave him the warmest smile I could muster, which wasn't very warm at all.

I felt the chariot start to move, and after a couple minutes, Caridee looked at Kingston and I, and we took that as our queue to get out of our chariot.

"And here are the tributes from District Seven!" I heard the voice of Lionel Davis say, I had been hearing his voice for as long as I can remember, "Aradina Acklers, who is sixteen, is looking beautiful in a dress designed by Destiny Dare. Kingston Harley, thirteen, is in a tuxedo designed by Philip Newson." Kingston and I walked down the catwalk, Capitol citizens gawking at us, and made our way to the other district's tributes. The pair from District One definitely had the most expensive, lavish outfits on. It seemed the girl's dress was made completely out of diamonds,

"Aradina's dress was completely made out of leaves and flowers, to represent the lumber district. Look how confident Aradina looks up there! She's going to be one to watch out for." Lionel was gushing about me.

Did I really look confident? Because I felt like I was going to faint. I could see the girl from District One watching me with envious eyes. Her white blonde hair, with a single hot pink highlight, flowed down to her waist, her (genetically altered) purple eyes staring me down. She obviously didn't like the idea of competition. Don't worry, princess, I won't be much a challenge for you.

The rest of the districts made their way to where we all were, some of the displaying beautiful outfits, others, like the pair from District 12 who were dressed like coal miners, were not.

"Let's give it up for our tributes for the 36th Annual Hunger Games! May the odd be ever in your favor, tributes!"

**A/N - So, i'm pretty sure no one's reading this, but I wrote a whole bunch for this, but it was all in the arena... and it's a lot more gruesome than I thought it would be! So, yeah, be excited for that! ;) I hope you all liked the chapter (yes, i know it's short, but they will get longer!) Review for me, please! I want to know what you guys think! :D**

**AND i have a SYOT story out now, so check that out, add a tribute! :D**


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